PREFACE
PREFACE
I was born in 1953, the year of the coronation of Elizabeth II. Like every child born in Britain that year, I was given a copy of the Bible, by command of the queen. As a child, I often pored over the book, puzzled by its old-fashioned language, yet intrigued by the stories it told. It was a copy of the translation published in 1611, often referred to as the “Authorized Version,” but more widely known as the King James Bible, after the British king who ordered it to be produced.
As I grew older, I often wondered how the whole thing came about. How was the translation process started? Who were the people who had created it? What issues did they face? How did they go about producing the translation? How was it received? And why had Elizabeth II asked for this specific version of the Bible to be given to all born in the year of her coronation? What was so special about it?
As the years passed, the Bible I had been given as a child gradually fell to pieces. Its pages dropped out, one by one, and eventually it had to be thrown away. But the questions that puzzled me remained with me. Finally, nearly half a century after being given that book, I came to a decision. I would investigate the origins of the King James Bible, and tell the story of what I now knew to be a literary and religious classic. This book tells that tale, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous century of events which brought it into being. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed telling it.
—ALISTER MCGRATH
OXFORD, JUNE 2000
